Build a personal brand and make real connections

IN YOUR OWN IMAGE

There’s something in your creative business that will bring you success in all the ways: more sales, a bigger following on social media, a more deeply committed audience, more opportunities in your local art community, etc.

Are you ready to know what it is?

A personal brand.

Now it’s easy to talk about a visual brand. This is something I specialize in. Picking colors, fonts, textures, filters, and every aesthetic detail is fun and it’s easy for other people to see if you’re doing it well or not.

A personal brand is similar, but it goes deeper — and the average passerby may not be able to identify it until they’ve been following your work for a while or they’re interested enough to dig a little deeper.

A personal brand talks about you. You as an artist. You as a human being. You as an artistpreneur.

It’s impossible to operate without one. In fact, you will have one whether or not you try — that’s why it’s important to be intentional about how you are seen so that you can craft your own image, not let someone else decide who you are or what you stand for.

PERSONAL BRAND BENEFITS

There are four things that a personal brand will bring to you:

• Clarity
• Consistency
• Connection with your ideal audience
• Contemplation of yourself

CLARITY: You can’t include every part of your personality into your business brand. Humans are complex as hell. We are constantly changing and making new decisions. But some things about you won’t really change, because you love those traits or activities and you’ll want to keep them in your life. A personal brand helps you clarify what’s included in your “main traits” and what isn’t. You get specific about what to show and what to keep private.

I advise picking just five traits to emphasize — I know narrowing it down is tough — so that your audience can catch on quickly and begin to remember you for those things. It makes it clear to them what you value most. Try to exclude everything else from your public image, at least online or in your business.

CONSISTENCY: Being consistent is the key to being trustworthy. Your friends know what to expect when you come to their house: How you’ll act, what you’ll bring when you come, if you’re going to be late or show up 20 minutes early, and what you will probably want to talk about while you’re over. Your presence as an artist should be just as predictable. What you post about, what kind of message you write with them, what you’ll sell, what services you provide and how you’ll deliver them should be known before they buy or message you.

When you’re unpredictable, you’re not consistent. You need a cohesive inner brand as much as you need a cohesive visual brand. A solid personal brand will make sure you’re consistent and trustworthy — and your audience knows it.

CONNECTION: The purpose is to allow others to connect with you on a personal level. People buy from people. People want to collaborate with people they like and admire. Opening up and showing everyone what you care about forms a deeper connection with them and they start to feel like they really know you — because truthfully, they kind of do!

And when people know you, they trust you to do great work. They are sure that you’ll show up to the gig when you’re supposed to, and you’ll deliver what you promised. Would you want someone you don’t know anything about to design a meaningful portrait for your spouse? Probably not. But when you feel connected to an artist, they’ll be the one on your mind when you need a job done.

CONTEMPLATION: Figuring out your top five most important traits is a lot of pressure. You start to ask a bunch of introspective questions: What do I really care about? How do I want to be known? What am I trying to say?? Who am I??? Don’t get lost in an existential crisis here, folks.

Contemplating your personality traits is important for personal growth and the growth of your artist business. It’s uncomfortable to confront yourself but it must be done. Take your time when deciding what your top five traits are that you want to broadcast to the world, and don’t be shy about trying a few on before deciding on a final roster. If you don’t love who you are yet, try to shape it around who you want to be in the future. (But don’t be dishonest. I want to be a multi-millionaire with the reputation of Banksy and the patience of the Dalai Lama but that’s not reality.) Shape your image intentionally so that you are happy with it and know that your brand image will always be blended with your personal image.

WHAT TO INCLUDE IN YOUR BRAND

Figure out what the top five (five and only five!!) traits, hobbies or aspects of your life that you want to emphasize in your personal brand are NOT INCLUDING YOUR ARTWORK.

Your artwork shouldn’t be part of your personal brand. As an artist by trade, it’s a given. It’s probably your main passion, your drive for life, the fuel to your fire, yada yada yada. It’s the same way with every single artist ever. Your personal brand will separate you from this crowd of artists when your visual brand is unable to.

So if not your art, what should you include?

When people hear your name, they should think of certain traits. Are you loud and outspoken? Are you an avid backpacker or outdoorsman? Are you always done up with a full face or au naturel? Are you an activist for some political cause, say LGBTQ rights (happy pride y’all) or a gun rights advocate? Do you have a large family and lots of kids that you want to highlight in your brand?

Here are some more ideas:

• An idea, philosophy or motto

• Your day job, if you love it

• Your family or friends

• A physical trait

• Your music tastes

• Your city

• Your mental health or mindset

• Your pets

• Your fashion style

• An activity you love, like running or organizing

• Your favorite food or diet choices

• Qualities about you that benefit your business, like timeliness or flexibility

• Something you collect, like coffee mugs or trinkets

• Your workspace

• Your volunteer groups

• Your background or “come up” story

• Your race, gender, nationality, etc.

The things you include should be relatable, but also unique. Say for instance your favorite hobby outside of art is gardening. A lot of people can probably relate to that or admire that trait. Maybe you make it unique by planting only edible plants in your garden. Or maybe you balance it out with your second trait, your insane stuffed animal collection.

Your five personal brand traits should also be something you genuinely love enough to repeatedly show off or talk about. These traits need to be as consistent as the visual style in your artwork. They should show up in the form of social media posts, something you talk about in video, pictures, your messaging, and in your real life. If you find yourself going out to eat at dive diners and tiny breakfast holes by yourself all the time (like me!), that’s something you genuinely like and could easily work into your brand. If you like it but you never really participate in it (like travel, most people love it but don’t do it a lot) then don’t include it. You likely won’t have enough content to keep it consistent.

WHAT NOT TO INCLUDE:

Some things may be best to leave out of your personal brand. Mostly these are things that are likely to change or that will restrict you from a business perspective.

For example, don’t build a brand around:

• Your age. It’s awesome to be a young artist, but you’ll get older, and it’ll no longer be relevant or impressive.

• An unpopular political stance. I mean UNPOPULAR. Advocating for pedophilia? You’re not welcome here, and you won’t be welcome most places. (Yes, these people actually exist.)

• Being a starving artist. Do you really want to keep that up? No way, you want to get out of that stereotype. Exceptions can be made if it’s part of a come-up story.

• Something you want to keep private. Some artists choose to expose their trauma and build their brand through their journey to recovery. This is powerful and if it’s important to you, go for it. Many can relate. But personally, that’s not something I would feel comfortable with. Don’t feel like you need to tell everyone everything if you don’t want to.

However, know that you don’t have to be “professional.” If you’re not the corporate cookie-cutter type, don’t pretend to be. Swear like a sailor? Sure. Like to smoke weed and take magic mushrooms? Sure. Are you a regular at the nude beach? Sure. Hate those girl boss power suits? Me too.

Know that you don’t need to be the standard version of “professional.” But also know that if you advertise the fact that you like to party and drink a lot, not all companies or customers will want to work with you. But that’s okay. Customers who also like to party will. Just know that what you put out, you attract.

HOW TO DECIDE ON PERSONAL BRAND TRAITS

First, think about your ideal client. Who would you LOVE to work with? Who do you want to be hanging your artwork in their home? Who do you want telling their friends about your art? What major companies or brands would you want to collaborate with?

Ask yourself if any of your personal brand traits would conflict with these ideal clients or prevent them from working with you. If they would, leave them out of your brand.

Also think of what I mentioned earlier: what you put out, you attract. Your personal brand will help define the audience attracted to you. For instance, say you’re broke. If you make being broke part of your brand, you’ll attract other people without money because they can relate. Nothing against them, but those people probably can’t afford to buy your work. You don’t want to specifically attract those clients as a main pillar of your brand. Just cater to all income levels with a few smaller priced items and the occasional sale and call it a day. If you build a brand around it, ALL of your products will have to align with a small budget. There’s not a lot of profit in that unless you can reeeeally scale. In other words, choose your ideal clients wisely, and let your brand speak to them.

Secondly, think about yourself. Who have you been in the past? Who are you right now? What parts of yourself do you love? What do you not like? What do others already know and think about you? What do they not know, but you wish they did?

It’s expected when going through the contemplative part of branding that you’ll think of what your parents, boyfriend, or people at work will say about the way you’re promoting yourself. Think about it, but don’t let it influence you. Your life and image should never be confined by the opinions of others. And no one admires someone who half-heartedly stands up for something their parents think is right. People admire someone who preaches what they truly love and believe in. So stop thinking about others. Think about yourself and your business on this one.

HOW TO SHOW YOUR BRAND OFF

Once you’ve narrowed your whole human self into five little traits, how will you let them speak for your artist business?

Your personal brand should be plastered in all the places:

— Your portfolio

You will have an about me page or an artist bio statement in your portfolio, at least if you followed my art portfolio guide here. Include some of your traits, if not all, into this text. If this were the first place someone lands to be introduced with your work, you want them to get personal and get to know you right away.

— Your social media

This is the easiest place to show off your personal interests. It’s easy to be comfortable and unprofessional here because that’s really how most people use social media — to get to know each other. Stories or posts on Instagram are the perfect way to let others peek into your less curated life and get to know the real you. You can also write long-winded posts and create picture albums that go deeper than your art.

— Your real-life self

Show up how you want to. Be mindful of your surroundings and know that anyone could be a new customer or business hookup. Do you want being rude and starting drama to be a part of your personal brand? Then don’t do that in real life. Creating a personal brand is about business, yes, but it’s also about growing into your true and best self. Embody that brand, and be proud of it. If it feels fake or forced, you’re doing it wrong.

— Your art show booth setup

This is the one of the most public places you’ll be where there are hundreds of people looking to discover a new artist they’ll love. So show off your personal brand alongside your art. What are you wearing? What types of food did you bring? Are you wearing that full face makeup that matches your brand? Anything that can be shown off here, do it.

— Your artwork

Paint about the things in your brand. Are your pets in your five traits? Paint their portrait! Got a cheerful vibe? Let it seep into your illustration themes. Your art shouldn’t be part of your five traits, but your five traits should show up in your art.

— Your packaging

Shipping and packaging is usually framed as a visual branding effort, and rightly so, but you can include personal touches. For instance, I write secret poetry that I never post online or share with my friends, but when I ship out a print to a customer, I hand-write a secret poem that aligns with my painting on the back along with my signature. It’s super personal and super on-brand. You can try other things like including a Polaroid photo of yourself with a thank you note in your packaging, or including a link to a special web page for customers only. Get creative!

HOW WILL YOU SHOW UP?

Personal branding not only fascinates me, but I have seen the success it brings other entrepreneurs of all shapes. Artistpreneurs would stand to benefit from taking notes! What do you think your top five personal traits would be? Comment below and let me know!